No stopping SPED transporation costs

Saturday

May 10, 2014 at 10:21 PMMay 10, 2014 at 10:21 PM

By Brad PetrishenDaily News Staff

While the state reimburses towns for complying with the law by educating students with special needs, it pays nothing at all to help transport those students to school - an increasingly costly proposition that is stretching many budgets."It’s a big issue for me, because we can’t control those costs," said Charles Gobron, superintendent for Northborough and Southborough. "These kids have to be transported."According to a 2010 study by the Massachusetts Special Education Transportation Task Force, the cost of special education transportation grew by 89 percent from 1995 to 2003, compared to a 50 percent increase for the cost of regular education transportation.According to the same organization, the number of children being transported outside their school districts to special schools has increased from 9,116 in fiscal 2009 to 10,414 in fiscal 2013.In Northborough, the fiscal 2015 K-8 budget for special education transportation is $570,000 – nearly $150,000 more than it costs to send the more than 1,700 other kids in the district to class.The expense is often so high because students with severe disabilities need to go to special schools outside the district in special vehicles, often with monitors. While state law requires towns pay for tuition and transportation to such schools, it only provides "circuit breaker" reimbusement funds for the educational costs.That means that, although towns get reimbursed for up to 75 percent of the costs for tuition, they don't get a dime toward their increasingly pricey transportation budgets."It is costly. There’s no question about that," said Cheryl Maloney, superintendent in Weston, one of numerous MetroWest towns that has seen transportation costs rise in recent years.Southborough K-8 schools anticipate spending $450,000 on special education transportation in fiscal 2015, a nearly 10 percent increase from fiscal 2014. It also projects to spend much less to send the rest of students to school - $361,000.Framingham estimates it spent $4.2 million in special education transportation for fiscal 2014 – up from $3.58 million in fiscal 2012. It has seen increases in each of the past three years, as has Hopedale and Weston.At a recent meeting, Southborough K-8 School Committee Chairwoman Kathleen Harragan said she couldn’t comprehend why the state has been "completely ignoring" such a large expense for so long.Committee members note that one student can really strain a budget if he or she moves into the town just before the start of a fiscal year."It just doesn’t make any sense that the city or town he moves to should pick up the tab instead of the state," Paul Desmond, of the Southborough K-8 School Committee, said at an election debate this week.Gobron and other superintendents have petitioned state lawmakers to begin offering funding to get special education students to and from school."You have a growing special education population, so these costs are continuing to go up," said state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton.Eldridge has co-sponsored House Bill 493, which would strike the wording in state law that exempts the state from having to pay transportation costs.If passed, the state would have to reimburse the towns for special education transportation at the same rate it does for the "circuit breaker" funding for the education itself.Though Eldridge said he and many other legislators believe the policy change to be a fair one, that doesn’t mean it will happen anytime soon."The obstacle to us actually passing these bills is that of course it’s going to be more state money to spend," he said, estimating paying for this could cost as much as $100 million."In the absence of an additional source of revenue, I don’t think it would be possible to pass (the bill) this session," he said.In the meantime, the state has, since 2005, put funding toward a group called the Massachusetts Special Needs Transportation Task Force.The purpose of the funding is to help state education collaboratives study the ways they send their special education students to outside schools and determine how they can save money by combining bus routes."If more than one district can ride in one vehicle, there’s a great savings," said Colleen Cavanaugh, a consultant who has worked on the effort since its inception. "It’s also better for the student, because they’re riding with their peers."According to a 2010 Task Force annual report, the program led to a savings of $7.3 million in transportation costs over a five-year period in three "pilot" collaboratives, including the ACCEPT Education Collaborative in Natick and the Assabet Valley Collaborative in Marlborough.The organization’s annual reports provide examples of how combining routes could save money.For example, in the 2013 report, Cavanaugh identified a route combination between Southborough, Westborough and Shrewsbury it said had the potential to save the towns $37,000 annually."We’re always trying to encourage districts to work together," said Cavanaugh. She encouraged those interested in viewing the reports to visit her website, spedtranssavings.org.Gobron said although he understands the state has fiscal constraints, he’d like to see politicians make some sort of commitment on transportation, even if it only starts reimbursment rates at 10 percent."I’m trying to open the door (for this)," he said. "It really does put a burden on school districts."Brad Petrishen can be reached at 508-490-7463 or bpetrishen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @BPetrishen_MWDN.